United Airlines

Preset No.3

I saw on twitter from the BBC Business editor that United are dropping BFS-EWR and DUB/MAN - IAD for the first quarter of 2015.

The BFS route is dropped for 9 weeks but apart from that has an average 90% load factor.

owenc

90%! Surprised at that!

VG

BonkeyDonker

owenc wrote: »

90%! Surprised at that!

VG

Same here as a friend of mine flies them regularly, and chooses Belfast when he can as he says the flight is less crowded than from Dublin.

Jack1985

Flight could be flying full but could have shocking yields.

Preset No.3

I never thought the DUB-IAD was a great success.

I'm a UA fan, but didn't like having to route back through IAD on my return flight from MCO. At least the crew were still ex CO.

Jhcx

Got a link. Typing it into Google it's mostly about Belfast but mentioned dub. That's shocking. United do very well at Dublin all year round. Flights are full all summer. And still relatively busy during the winter. With the economy improving should be keeping them.

owenc

I personally think its because of the merger. I mean look at the previous United it never offered services to any of those airports so its actually no surprise.

I am not surprised they haven't cut all the routes as that doesn't seem to be their agenda.

Jack1985

DUB-EWR will be continuing unaffected, DUB-IAD was also stopped during the same period last year. I would imagine the move by UA is to see how many passengers from BFS use there DUB-EWR service, if it's positive I think you can expect some sort of announcement.

owenc

Whatever

Jack1985

owenc wrote: »

Whatever

Why do you act like a child throwing his toys out of the pram? This is an airline business dictated by profit and they will plan to make that profit accordingly - Not to suit YOU owenc - So indeed, ''whatever'' :rolleyes:

Question, why should UA operate between Jan-Mar from BFS to EWR when they run a loss during that period?

Preset No.3

owenc wrote: »

I personally think its because of the merger. I mean look at the previous United it never offered services to any of those airports so its actually no surprise.

I am not surprised they haven't cut all the routes as that doesn't seem to be their agenda.

Before you throw your toys out of the pram again, you will find that although they carry the united name, the 2 airlines operate very seperate operations. Speak to any UA or CO crew and they will tell you that.

basill

The airline industry is no different to any other business. If the analysts think that they can make more profit elsewhere then why not shift focus. Consider the costs involved in an Atlantic operation:-

- etops approval on the airframe
- US carriers generally have 3 pilots for the Atlantic plus cabin crew all put up in hotels with overnight allowances
- days off for crew following the crossing home

By dropping an Atlantic route an airline might have shorter domestic flights planned which would need less crew, no overnight costs and get increased productivity from the crew. A typical east coast Atlantic sector would have a block time of 8.5 hrs and a duty time of maybe 9.5-10hrs including reporting etc. You could get 2/3/4 domestic sectors in that time frame.

owenc

8.5 hours!!

Where the hell is that to!!

Jack1985

owenc wrote: »

8.5 hours!!

Where the hell is that to!!

EWR-TXL.. !!!

Preset No.3

But EWR-TXL isn't been dropped.

Jack1985

Preset No.3 wrote: »

But EWR-TXL isn't been dropped.

No BFS is, and you could replace that with a return service between EWR-MIA - I imagine the latter is a much wiser move when sending the 757 to BFS to lose money between Jan-Mar.

owenc

Jack1985 wrote: »

EWR-TXL.. !!!

I thought he was referring to Ireland.